Northmount

I have some that is well over 50 years old. Was stored for years in a shed that was subject to hot summer days and -40 winter days. Still good. Tom

Looks like a number of suppliers no longer carry the machines or rolls. Tandy - discontinued, Tippman - discontinued Look for rolls at Bunkhouse tools Hand cranked embosser Tom

Have had a similar problem with veg tan. Scrubbed it with saddle soap, bleached with oxalic acid, smell is gone. Surface colour was inconsistent so that was why I bleached it, but it does help with the smell too. Tom

Even if the gears aren't marked for a mating position, shifting worn (even very slightly worn) will increase the noise level because the wear pattern has been disrupted. The higher the speed, the more noise. Tom

Cut a strip of leather about 1" (25 mm) wide, wrap it around a core, such as cord, plastic, etc. Stitch it together. There are special sewing machine presser feet available to help make a neat job. Can do it without, but is a little more difficult. Then assemble the bag inside out with the corded piece between the two pieces you are joining. You can take some scrap and try it out before you do the real thing. Experiment, get a feel for it. Practice. If you do a search you should be able to find some pictures to help understand the process. Often used in upholstery. Don't limit your search to leather. Tom

Increases outside presser foot pressure when you screw it down. It goes right thru the body and presses down on a long "leaf type spring". The left end of the spring rides on the outside presser foot inside the left end of the head. Open the end cover and trace the linkages. You can see where it goes. Tom

I had the freight company put the pallet with the machine on the curb in front of my house, then unpacked and carted the table, motor, head, etc. and moved them each with a 2 wheel cart into the house, and downstairs (6 steps) where I assembled it. Delivery was via a 40 ft. semi trailer with a lift. There was no extra charge. Hopefully, the machine your are receiving is packed similarly. If they can't place it on the curb for no extra charge, see if you can get 15 minutes and some help to un-crate quickly and place in a truck or on the curb and move components inside piece by piece. My back doesn't like me very well either, but I managed. My machine does have a lighter head than yours. I'm sure you can get a couple friends to hang around for a few hours if they know your needs. Tom

Called filligree Tom

Free shipping, or there is a fee for shipping? I assume it's a typo, but just want to clarify. Tom

Please read this link and post pictures http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=70 Tom

I've had some really smelly veg tan hides from Tandy. Had to scrub them with saddle soap and bleach with oxalic acid to eliminate the smell. They were cheap hides with lots of range marks. Good for doing prototypes, but the smell was sickening. Tom

Several months ago there was a thread here looking for rectangular slot punch for watch straps. Seems to me they found one. So it looks like a search is in order for you to find it. Tom

Very nice, even if you don't feel like making more right now, I'm sure you will later. But I agree, after making the same sort of thing several times, it is nice to move on to something else for a time. Tom

If the article is kept dry, not allowed to become sweaty or other moisture causes, very little verdigris should occur. I have some leather harness that is many years old. The copper rivets don't show any verdigris. Yet other work has been moist enough to begin "growing" the green stuff! Tom

Veg tanned leather does not have a sealed surface. Decorative tooling is done on veg tan leather. Part of the process it to dampen the leather so it will take the stamp impressions. Too wet is mushy, dry won't take impressions. There is a pinned topic about casing the leather in preparation for tooling if you are interested in following up that part of the craft. Dampen the leather across all the surface and let it dry. Then there shouldn't be water spots after it dries. If the surface needs to be cleaned, use saddle soap. If there are stains, they can be bleached out (in most cases) using oxalic acid. There lots of threads about cleaning or bleaching leather if you want to search for them. Tanning means the skin has been preserved. There are several methods of tanning. Each has its preferred uses. If the skin is not tanned, it will go rancid, stink, and rot. There are exceptions. Tom

Great video and information! Tom

Ken's videos, see this post Tom

For clipping wallet inserts similar to these http://www.tandyleather.ca/en/product/horizontal-wallet-insert to the interior of a wallet. They are an old style dating back to at least 1960. They won't work with these inserts. Tom

OK. I decided to get one to try it out. Took about a week after shipping date to arrive, so wasn't on a slow boat from China. It comes completely disassembled. The instructions in the box are all Chinese. After assembling it, I found a download with English instructions. That would have been much more helpful! Instructions It skives soft leather fairly easily. On vegtan, it kept digging in and cutting right through, making a useless mess. The blade has too high an incline wrt the leather, so just keeps cutting deeper. I decided to try reducing the angle (actually bending the blade holder closer to 90 degrees) to about half of what it was supplied as. Now it will skive vegtan too. The instructions say to place the blade about 1 to 2 mm behind the apex of the roller. If you don't, the leather runs into the bottom of the blade holder and screw heads. The blade needs to be supported as close to the edge as possible to stop the blade from flexing. So I will be filing the bottom blade support at a much shallower angle to give the clearance needed plus the support. It uses standard disposable razor blades. Comes with 3 packages of five. If you watch the video in the OPs original post, It looks real easy to skive. You will need some practice to get it to behave that nicely. Notice that the user in the video has left a number of screws out of the blade holder and bracket. Makes it easier and quicker to change blades or skiving angle. The version I received has the blade clamping bar on the top of the blade holder, whilst the video has it under the blade holder. The "limit block" or guide is useless. The video and instructions show it assembled to pull the leather from left to right. I reassembled mine to pull from the right to the left. I can see better what is happening, and find it easier to guide with my right hand rather than my left. For any amount of skiving, I find this easier to use and more repeatable than a skiving knife, round knife, or safety skiver. It will take me a little more practice to go around corners, and to start right at the end of a strap. Once started, it goes well now (with the lower blade angle). Tom

He won't split it up. Didn't want to ship either, but had another shipment he had to put together, so decided he would for this one too. Good chance for people in the east looking for a skiver to get something reasonable price. Tom

There is a kijiji ad in Quebec offering a TAKING TK-801 skiver for $500. The owner keeps replacing the ad each month, so it has been for sale for some months now. Owner will not negotiate price. Seems to be fairly priced considering the new price. And for USA, the current exchange rate is especially favourable. http://www.kijiji.ca/v-commercial-industriel/trois-rivieres/taking-skiver-leather-vinyl-rubber/1111964822?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true If it wasn't for $350 shipping to Calgary, I probably would have bought it. Tom

Very nice! Now my son will be wanting one! Tom

I've never had to re-time mine, three years. Check loose set screws, check clutch properly set or reset. Have you had a jamb or broken needle causing a jamb? Call Ron as Colt says. Tom

746 watts = 1 hp Tom

You have a choice, raw edges, or add extra to all outside edges to allow for turned edges. Tom